


Third Times the Charm

by GuineapigQueen



Category: South Park
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-12 07:09:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18006215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuineapigQueen/pseuds/GuineapigQueen
Summary: Craig has had three boyfriends, third times the charm, right?





	Third Times the Charm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rachhell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachhell/gifts).



> My birthday present for @rachhell I forgot to post because I suck, but I wanted Rachel to have the gift publicly, and hopefully you Cryle people will like it. I know I normally write Creek, so if you're looking for fluffy endgame creek you won't find it here, sorry. This is unbeta'd so if theres errors I apologise.

For Craig Stripe was more like a soulmate than any boyfriend had been. Guinea pigs only lived roughly seven years, and this Stripe, Stripe #6, Craig had gotten not long after leaving for college. A present for himself as he struck out on his own and a friend to stave off the loneliness of being in a new place. 

 

Stripe was there when Tweek turned up on his doorstep, long distance too much for him. When Tweek has to breakaway from his parents and had nowhere else to go. Craig let him move in, thinking it would be wonderful for them to be together again. Loving someone over Skype was hard, they’d practically lived together in high school. How hard could it be now? 

 

Turns out, very. They had such different priorities, Craig was in school on a scholarship needing the grades to keep it and get through. He wanted to be an engineer badly, he didn’t want to settle for a minimum wage job. If he were honest he wanted to settle down, get the job, the house, marry Tweek, at the very least get some cats. Tweek didn’t want any of that, Tweek wanted to work minimum wage, party the money away and had zero foresight for his future. When he spent their rent money in drugs Craig decided it was time to move on. It broke his heart but he needed to find someone who wanted the same things - somebody who wanted to build, not destroy.

 

Stripe was there when Tweek and Craig broke up. Dramatically, loudly, violently. Craig left, he could find another place easier, but Tweek yelled and screamed and threw things as he did. At least Craig had Stripe - even if the move stressed him a bit. Stripe was good at sitting with him as he watched late night tv and tried not to cry at all the couples on House Hunters looking to build their perfect life. He was stupid to think Tweek was the one, but at least he felt a little better when he petted Stripes soft fur and fed him carrots. Both Stripe and Craig gained weight over the period of that break up. 

 

By the time Craig met Stan though, Craig had his shit together. He was newly working as an engineer, saving money and was looking healthier than ever. Stan was working as a nurse, which Craig had always considered an underrated job. He always thought Stan deserved better than he got but Stan loved his job so much that he didn’t seem to mind. Craig still had Stripe but Stripe was beginning to get on age-wise but he wasn’t geriatric yet. Craig just cared for him as best he could, always made sure he was home on time to feed him and made sure he was taken to the vets regularly for check ups. 

 

Craig and Stan hadn’t had some kind of interesting or fairytale meeting - a mutual friend just introduced them at a bar. Craig thought Stan was kind of funny, in a really, really daggy kind of way. But Craig generally hated going out for these kind of social gatherings so he was happy to have met someone that made him laugh. He had such a good time that he gave Stan his number at the end of the night - and that’s how it all began. 

 

At first, things with Stan were awesome. He was so different to Tweek, he worked so hard at his job and seemed to want the same family-orientated things Craig did. And Stan adored Stripe, often saying he wished he could get a pet but he just didn’t think he could lay them enough attention with the long hours he was working. Craig worked long hours too, but it wasn’t as physically and emotionally taxing as nursing - so Craig could understand why Stan felt like he may not be able to make it work. 

 

It was their jobs that killed it in the end too. Stan was on night shift and Craig was working predominantly nine-to-five. They just never saw each other, and the working nights really seemed to be unhealthy for Stan. He never wanted to try and do things on his days off and just slept all day. Craig tried to get him to switch to days countless times but he just wouldn’t. Claiming that night staff were so badly needed and that sometimes you just have to do things you don’t like. 

 

They just… drifted.

 

Much like the beginning of their relationship, the end was unremarkable. It was weirdly amicable and just so unlike anything he’d had with Tweek. Stan wanted to stay friends and well, Craig saw no reason why not.

 

It was Stan who introduced Craig to Kyle. Some people thought it was kind of weird but by that time Craig and Stan had fallen into a platonic friendship and had an easy dynamic. So Stan set them up and they hit it off. Mostly Craig likes how intellectual Kyle is, Craig can talk about a lot more of his interests in detail than he could with his previous two exes. And while Kyle has an unpredictable streak it isn’t  _ so  _ unpredictable that Craig couldn’t bring him home to meet his mom or settle down with him. Settle down is exactly what they did - they had an apartment and got a cat, deciding that kids weren’t for them. He and Kyle wanted all the same things from the future. 

 

Stripe by this stage was ailing. Kyle still doted on him, making sure he had his daily medication and that he had eaten all his greens if Craig was ever too tied up with work or something. Craig could rely on Kyle, he turned up when he said he would, he was always able to pay his own way and he had a steady job that mostly matched schedules with Craig’s. Kyle is a researcher for the local university and has like two degrees or something crazy like that… Craig struggles to keep track sometimes. But the conversations are never boring, Kyle sometimes brings his work home with him but never enough to cause distance or friction. Craig doesn’t wanna jinx it, but he hopes third time's the charm. 

 

He knows Kyle is the one when he has to make the decision to put Stripe to sleep. Kyle doesn’t interject or try to take over, he just holds his hand - a steady support. They don’t have to speak to know the heaviness and importance of this moment. Stripe saw Craig through more than any of his boyfriends ever had, but Kyle was here, ready to see Stripe off and to say “I can take it from here, you can rest now.” 

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is blesspastacraig if you wanna be friends :)


End file.
